


Shadows and Blood

by Fyre



Category: Tanz der Vampire - Steinman/Kunze
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-31 02:30:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1026217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyre/pseuds/Fyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the house of Graf von Krolock, there always was a voice of reason.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows and Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beth Winter (BethWinter)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BethWinter/gifts).



> My yuletide 2008 fic for Beth :D

The night was black, black as the grief which assailed him.

Von Krolock spread his hands on the frost-edged glass. Cold and hard as his heart. Surely no other in all the world could know the anguish that his eternal damnation wrought upon his tarnished soul.

The door close to him opened with a soft groan, as if it sympathised with his agony, but it was not she. She was gone, fleeing into the night, a bird loosed from the cage which had bound it for so long.

How he wished he could grieve for the beautiful being he had so recently damned to share a fate as pitiable and bleak as his own. The flush of her cheeks would pale like a rose sapped of colour, and though she would never age, she would never again be that bright, dancing creature he had watched.

As similar as a portrait, she would be preserved in appearance, but in nature, she had been destroyed. Would it not have been better to end her life? End it completely and let the dust and ash of her bones and his grief fall through his fingers, already stained by death.

"Oh, do stop it."

In a castle of echoing silence and shadows, what had he to...

"Vati, will you stop that now?"

His son's impatient voice made him turn. "Herbert, I would be alone."

"Yes, you would," Herbert replied with an indignant snort. His slender arms were folded upon his narrow chest. "But then, you would end up weeping all over your new cravat and ruining the silk, and I find it quite wretched that you don't see how much that distresses me. You are so very selfish!"

Krolock's nails rasped against the glass. "She is lost to me," he murmured. His attention was not upon his son, but the expressive sigh and the roll of green eyes were impossible to ignore. "You do not realise how deeply I felt for her."

"Like you felt for that pretty little hoyden you devoured two years ago?" Herbert inquired, putting his head to one side. "Or perhaps you mean that charming page who found himself privy to your hospitality? Honestly, Vati, do you think I simply spend all my time primping and waiting for any boy who doesn't catch your eye? I do have a little intelligence, though it may surprise you."

"Herbert," Krolock murmured, though unsure if he desired to chastise the younger vampire for his impertinence or acknowledge what his son had said.

"Anyway, I lost someone too, tonight," Herbert added. He was pouting, and for a heartbreaking moment, the resemblance to his mother, so long dead, was like a stake to the heart. "That darling little student you brought me. In case you failed to notice, he is quite gone as well."

Beyond the glass, in the black of the night, a howl rang out, echoed. Like ripples on a pond, the sound carried across the forest and the mountains.

"They will be found," Herbert said with quiet malevolence. "Koukol may be a repulsive creature, but he is thorough." His son stepped close to him, touched his shoulder. "You took enough to see her changed?"

"She tasted like summertime," Krolock murmured, his eyes falling closed, remembering that fading sweetness. It was if he was drawing the very colour and brightness from her with her vitality. "All that will be left will be dust and ashes and a demon such as..."

"Vati," Herbert snapped, "if you do not stop lamenting what is already past, like you do every single time it happens, I promise you I will become quite cross."

His son looped his arm through Krolock's, guiding him away from the dark window.

"Come, now," Herbert went on, his voice gentling, "at least this year, our celebration will be one to remember. A gathering invaded by vampire killers, yet none of us killed? How many can claim to have taken a girl from the vampire killers, taken her right before their eyes? You know your reputation and all esteem is returned." Herbert smiled at him. "Surely that is worth a little joy?"

It was with reluctance that Krolock allowed himself a smile. "Of course," he murmured. "I know how much these gatherings mean to you."

"And you enjoy them too," Herbert said smugly. "Do not for a moment imagine that you can fool me. I saw how you laughed from the stairs. You delight in terrorising our guests."

"A minor pleasure," Krolock admitted. Herbert truly knew his little foibles far too well.

"Minor?" Herbert laughed openly. "Vati, I'm quite certain I saw that hairy little soldier of yours from Wallachia piss his tights when you laughed. You did it on purpose and you relished it."

For the first time since Sarah's flight, von Krolock smiled truly. "You know I dislike that inelegant ruffian," he murmured.

"One must always have one guest one can be terrible to," Herbert said with an air of innocence that was far from convincing. "It keeps all the others in line. After you had him chased by the wolves last year, I think your laughter terrifies him."

"Herbert, Herbert, Herbert," his father murmured, "you think too much of me. I did not have him chased by wolves." His son looked at him in surprise. "I only made him think it was so, after he relieved himself in my study. You know I deplore ill conduct in our home."

Herbert embraced von Krolock's arm suddenly. "I adore you, Vati!" he announced. "I truly do."

"Dear boy," his father murmured. "You brighten this existence for me."

Herbert smiled at him. "Enough of this sentimentality," he said. "You have clearly had too much blood. It has gone to your brain and it making you think far too much. To say nothing of such excitement at your age."

"Impudent youth," von Krolock said with a brief smile.

"Eternally so," Herbert agreed. "Now, come. We have guests to patronise."

Together, father and son walked into the darkness of the castle.


End file.
